Dear Hartman Foundations for a Thoughtful Judaism cohort bet (two),
We meet on Zoom this coming Monday, Feb 13, 5:45-7:30PM, and the topic is: Making Moral Choices & The Moral Imperative Approach (Unit 3, Class 1). We’re delighted that Sara Labaton of the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America will teaching/facilitating the session. See Sara’s bio below.
1. We’ve added some contemporary additional reading materials under “Class 6” before Monday’s class.
2.The podcasts can and should be listened to at your leisure. They are compelling takes on some of the main issues we are talking about. There is no timeline to listening to them.
Below you will find the Zoom link, as well as all of the sessions and the final learning celebration through the end of our learning. Please mark your calendars now so you don’t miss a thing!
UNIT 3 MAKING MORAL CHOICES ● The Moral Imperative Approach - Feb 13, 2023 ● The Moral Concern Approach - March 13, 2023 ● Managing Tensions + Conclusion - March 27, 2023
FINAL LEARNING CELEBRATION ● Friday, May 26, 6-8:30PM Shabbat-Shavuot Services + Dinner + Shavuot Learning with JCOGS participants of Foundations for a Thoughtful Judaism
Dr. Sara Labaton is Director of Teaching and Learning at the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America, where she serves as a conduit between the Kogod Research Center and program directors, overseeing programmatic excellence and ensuring that research topics and content are informed by the realities of the field and experience of program participants. She was a member of the inaugural cohort of North American David Hartman Center Fellows.
Sara received a B.A. in Religious Studies from Columbia University and a doctorate in Medieval Jewish Thought from the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at NYU. Her doctoral thesis focused on the relationship between the esoteric and peshat hermeneutics in the commentaries of Abraham ibn Ezra, particularly with regard to ibn Ezra’s understanding of biblical cultic rituals. Sara was a founding faculty member of Yeshivat Hadar, where she developed a Bible and Exegesis curriculum. She has taught in a variety of Jewish settings, most recently as a history instructor at the Frisch School. Her research interests include the intersection of ritual and relevance, ritual experimentation, and overcoming the binary of halakhic–non-halakhic/insider-outsider in Jewish ritual practice. As part of her participation in the Religious Worlds Seminar at the Interfaith Center of New York, Sara researched ways of integrating comparative religion into Jewish educational contexts.
